Silence
by mugglebornpride
Summary: It is September 1, 1991 and Ginny has to say goodbye as the last of her brothers boards the Hogwarts Express and leaves her all alone.


Ginerva Molly Weasley was ten years old in the summer of 1991. Ronald Weasley was eleven. He would be leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow and Ginny would be left all alone in the Burrow. For the first time ever.

Ginny had never felt lonely in her life. She had never wanted for company. In a house of nine, one didn't complain about the silence. One relished it. For about ten seconds because that's when one of her six brothers would do something stupid and her mother would start yelling.

Slowly, though, the Burrow was emptying out. It had begun when Ginny was one. That was the year Bill started at Hogwarts. She was too little to miss him then but as the years passed, miss him she did. Bill, being the oldest of her brothers, was the most protective. He was the one Ginny relied on the most. That time the garden gnome had attacked her; he was the one who'd come pelting out of the house, waving his arms wildly to scare off the gnome. The sight of it had made two year old Ginny forget all about being knocked to the ground and she'd started laughing hysterically. When Bill had left for Egypt, he'd given her his Head Boy badge, the thing he was most proud of. Ginny had wailed loudly though. It wasn't fair that Bill was gone most of the year and now that he'd finally finished Hogwarts he could stay with her all the time but he was going to Egypt and she'd never see him again and she'd clung to his leg and not allowed him to move. He'd had to sneak out when she had tired herself out and fallen asleep. Poor Bill had written to her for months with no reply. Finally, when her plans of flying to Egypt on a broomstick had fallen through, she had given in and written only three words in reply, "See you soon."

Charlie had left for Romania only a year later. Ginny had growled in frustration. He'd showed her countless pictures of dragons and she had extremely useless information about where all these different types of dragons came from and what calmed them down and what they liked to eat taking up space in her brain because of him. She loved it though. She loved that this useless information crowded her brain because Charlie was the one who had taught her all that. He'd given her numerous flying lessons too. Charlie never treated her like a fragile little girl who needed to be protected. He made fun of her when she fumbled an easy catch. He pushed her to work harder when she was about to give up. When he left he'd given her a snitch he'd nicked from Hogwarts. He'd also given her a dragon claw necklace that she loved to bits.

With Percy, things were calm and quiet. Ginny loved those times although she'd never admit it. She loved those times when Percy would read to her from Tales of Beedle the Bard to put her to sleep. She loved it when he told her stories about all those heroic witches and wizards. She especially loved it when he told her Harry Potter's story. Percy was the one who told her the most about Hogwarts. He told her about all those fascinating lessons and all those interesting teachers, he'd told her about all the funny portraits and he'd told her about the beautifully bewitched ceiling of the Great Hall. Ginny had heard him talk all about being made a prefect that summer. Percy was a nice brother. He never teased her and he always listened to her, taking all her words very seriously. She was glad he hadn't left.

Fred and George were extremely annoying. But it was also extremely entertaining to be around them. Wherever they went, unexpected wonders occurred. They cracked jokes and mockingly completed each other's sentences and played pranks on everything that moved. Ginny could never catch her breath with those two. She was either too busy laughing with them or too busy shouting at them. Her first case of accidental magic was all thanks to them. Fred and George had stolen her little Teddy Bear and were threatening to dunk it in the mud. "Give it back! GIVE IT BACK!" Ginny had screeched and screeched until she'd made the mud fly up and smack them right in the face. Bill, who had been instructed to inspect the origin of all the commotion, had burst out laughing. Ginny had learnt determination from them. If they wanted something done, they would get it done, however unscrupulous the means. Besides, they were useful to have around. They had all kinds of things- things that would get her in trouble, things that would bail her out of trouble, things that would give their mother a heart attack, things that could land them in Azkaban. It fascinated Ginny as to how they'd managed not to get thrown out of Hogwarts yet.

Ron, being the closest to her age, was her only playmate, growing up. They'd run around the yard all day, every day. Not rain or hail or sunshine could stop them. They'd chase each other, they'd chase the chickens together, make mud pies together, splash water at eater and, later when they'd enter the house and track mud all over the kitchen, get yelled at by their mum together. For two years, they were the only Weasley siblings in the Burrow during term. They'd talked and talked about Hogwarts, about which House they'd be in, about the Giant Squid, about all the creatures in the Forbidden Forest and on and on. It was a never-ending topic and they'd had five siblings telling them all about it. Now, Ron's last summer before he went off to Hogwarts had arrived. They talked about Hogwarts much more. Ron talked about all the things he would do with feverish excitement. The silence was approaching but Ginny hadn't noticed. Or maybe she hadn't cared because they were having fun. Sure, she and Ron rowed quite a bit but at the end of the day it was them against the world. It had always felt like they were the last two left and Ginny had always thought it would be like that forever. So when all of them went to Diagon Alley to buy Ron's school supplies she was just happy about the ice cream she would be getting at Florean's later. Bill and Charlie had also come home and it had been a thoroughly blissful summer.

Then dawned the fateful day. September the first, 1991. Ron was ready before any of them. He stood at the foot of the stairs waiting for everyone else to finish packing already and get going. Her mum was worrying as usual. 'Do you have all your books? What about your wand? Oh Ron, where's Scabbers? Are you sure you don't want another piece of toast?' and it went on and on.

And Ron's impatient assurances that yes, he had everything. No he didn't need another haircut, his hair was bloody fine (language, Ronald Weasley mum had yelled), Scabbers was sitting in his pocket and could they please just leave. Ginny had felt it then. The silence. Even though the house was rent with panicked cries of last-minute packing and the screeching of Errol and dad telling Fred and George that flying carpets were indeed illegal and the accidental setting off of Filibuster's fireworks. The silence haunted Ginny through all of it. It haunted her as she showered and got ready. It haunted her as she ran down and hurried through breakfast. It haunted her as they rode the awful muggle taxis to King's Cross. No one noticed Ginny's silence because they were all so excited about Hogwarts until she burst into tears in the middle of the ride. All her brothers panicked. They never dealt much with crying Ginny because crying Ginny rarely ever made an appearance. With six brothers, Ginny had learnt to fight back rather than cry. Sometimes she used tears as her weapons but this time was different and they all knew. They comforted her as well as they could. Percy told her it would be alright, the twins cracked immature jokes and Ron told her he'd write to her. By the time they arrived at King's Cross Ginny was feeling much better.

As they entered platform nine-three-quarters all her brothers dispersed. Percy went to change into his robes and commence his prefect duties. Fred and George ran off talking about a tarantula their friend had acquired over the summer and Ron was trying to hurry off too, just to get away from mum's fretting. Ginny felt the haunting silence again. "Mum, can I go with them?" Ginny blurted without thinking.

"Oh, Ginny, you'll be going next year dear." Mum was saying.

"But I want to go with them." she whined. And why couldn't she? She was just as good as them already. She could run faster even than Ron. She could definitely beat Percy at a fist fight. If she could get her hands on a wand, she'd be set. She was about to argue her case when the rest of the Weasley's came back to say goodbye one last time and the twins mentioned that Harry Potter was on the train and Ginny could have died of excitement. "Oh, mom, can I go on the train and see him, mom, oh please…" Mum shot down the idea fast as a Nimbus 2000. They were all still talking when the whistle blew.

"Hurry up!" mum said and rushed them all to the train. They all leaned out obligingly and let mum kiss them goodbye and Ginny started crying again.

The twins assured to write and send her a Hogwarts toilet seat and Ginny managed a small smile as mum reprimanded them. The train began moving and Ginny ran along beside waving all the time, smiling through her tears until the train gathered too much speed for her to keep up. She fell back but kept waving until the last of the carriages had disappeared along the bend. She let her hand drop and went still. This was it. It was just her now. She felt her mum put an arm around her and squeeze. She bent down and placed a kiss on Ginny's forehead. Ginny noticed that the platform was now strangely calm and quiet now that the hustle and bustle of all the Hogwarts students was gone. Ginny felt so sad and so lonely. Already. It hadn't even been an hour.

"You'll be with them next year, dear." her mum assured her. "Come on now. There are mud pies to be made." she said, tugging lightly at Ginny's arm.

But Ginny didn't make mud pies. Her mum didn't get it but making mud pies required the combined efforts of both Ron and Ginny. She couldn't do it alone.

When you have six brothers, there aren't a lot of things you can do alone.

Back home, the Burrow was painfully empty. Just one year, Ginny reminded herself. Just one year. So she went out and grabbed an old broomstick from the shed. Finally, she could ride without being made fun of. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad. Maybe doing things alone wouldn't be so bad, Ginny decided as she soared into the air.

But who was she kidding. All that kept her going was the thought of playing Quidditch on the Gryffindor House team, of learning all those charms, of seeing the bewitched ceiling of Hogwarts. Of being part of something all her brothers were.

Until then though, she would make do with the silence. Or maybe she'd make some noise of her own.


End file.
